British Antarctic Survey oceanographer Dr Emily Shuckburgh, OBE, says trying to lower our individual carbon footprint is important, but the number one thing people can do to make a real difference is vote.

She also hit out at British politicians for failing to put the issue on the agenda, and singled out US President Donald Trump for his dismissal of the Paris Agreement earlier this month.

"The number one thing people can do is vote. Make your voice heard," she said.

"Climate change didn’t really feature much in our recent election but what did feature quite a lot in our recent election was intergeneration equity, this idea that younger generation are being screwed over by the older generation.

"And there is no greater issue of intergenerational equity than climate change."

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Dr Emily Shuckburgh, 43, is deputy head of the Polar Oceans Team at the British Antarctic Survey, which is focused on understanding the role of the polar oceans in the global climate system.

She is a fellow of Cambridge University's Darwin College, fellow of the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, associate fellow of the Centre for Science and Policy, member of the Cambridge Forum for Sustainability and the Environment, and member of the Faculty of Mathematics.

Dr Emily Shuckburgh is the British Antarctic Survey’s deputy head of polar oceans

As a climate scientists she has spent her life dedicated to the study of global warming and has also acted as an advisor to the UK Government on behalf of the Natural Environment Research Council.

She continued: "Decisions that we make today whether it is Trump in America or Michael Gove in his new position as Environment Minister are going to be impacting on our children for the rest of their lives.

"At the moment President Trump is posing an existential threat to life in the Fens. If American continues emitting [fossil fuels] as it is at the moment we will get to the stage in the coming decades when actually being able to live and farm and whatever else in the Cambridgeshire Fens begins to become increasingly untenable. "

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"It's not a political left versus right thing actually, unless you are living in the weird world of Donald Trump, it makes sense.

"Curbing our polluting ways has a climate benefit, but for this region it also has lots of other economic and health benefits."

Key among these is the burgeoning clean tech community in Cambridge, which she believes has the potential to drive economic prosperity in the region.

Cambridge-driven innovation into electric vehicle technology has the potential to have a positive impact on the climate by reducing the use of fossils, with knock-on health benefits.

Dr Shuckburgh says she was left dismayed by Trump's 'shortsighted' refusal to commit to the Paris Climate Change agreement earlier this month, which aims to bring 'all nations together to undertake ambitious efforts to combat climate change and adapt to its effects'.

"People can go about their daily lives and try to limit their impact but the number one thing they can do is higher up the political agenda," she said.

Rising tides could spell disaster for the Fens

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"In this region the opportunities are driving forward a clean green tech future. This is why China is also getting so into this. China is so polluted and they want to do something about that but also they see the huge commercial opportunities.

"Trump may be a businessman but he is not being forward sighted about the business opportunities here."

And as mother of two young girls, she speaks not just with the authority of a leading climate change expert, but from a place of deep concern for the future of her children and the younger generation on this planet.

"Climate change has become a real issue within peoples’ lifetimes. London is protected by the Thames barrier by rising sea levels, but the idea we can build more and more flood defences is untenable.

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"The whole of the west Antarctic ice-sheet holds something like three metres of sea level rise in total - you wouldn’t find suddenly three metres of sea level rise coming over night but nevertheless the scale of things in Antarctica is very substantial.

"But it is a [a more grave] issue for the younger generation - it is going to define their lives one way or the other."

You can find out more about the work of the British Antarctic Survey here.